Reds Game

Friday I was at the Reds game when they hit 7 homers. 2 from Bruce
and 2 from Votto. Can't beat that! There's quite a show when the home team hits a bomb. Fireworks, smoke, the works. The views are great from the upper deck overlooking the Ohio River and right in downtown Cincinnati next to where Riverfront/Cinergy used to be. The ball park is definitely one of my favorites up there with PNC and of course, Camden.

Great American Ball Park

Mouse traps?

The Hot Brown Has Died

*tear

Yes, I'll Have Another

Tonight I was introduced to this little number. Wow. Blown away.
Courtesy of the Brown Hotel in Louisville they call it a Hot Brown Sandwich.

I'm going to put it out there: This was a life changing experience.

Simply put, it's an open face turkey sandwich with a lot of other good
stuff on top. (see photo) You can see that it has bacon, which is an obvious plus, but it also has tons of melted cheese which makes it even better. Now usually the rule is anything with bacon is a can't miss. But I'm going to take it up a notch and mandate that anything with bacon AND cheese is even better. So from now on anything on a menu with cheese and bacon is a guaranteed sure thing. Take that to the bank.

Impossible to eat by hand it's acceptable to eat it with utensils. I think. I mean the only other way to eat it would be to dip your mug in a hulking mound of cheese.

Also, it's called a "hot" Brown for a reason. It's really hot, which I
learned the hard way through my impatience. As a result I have lost all feeling in my tongue.

Shout out to Jon Frank for this tremendous rec. Turkey will never be
the same.

An Obvious Stop On the Trip

The Louisville Slugger Bat Factory.

Talk about a personal quest. I've been yearning for many a year to
come visit this bat wonderland. Again, they told you not to take
photos inside the factory, but the IPhone is super stealthy and I
managed this shot of the billets used for a few of today's superstars.

Many interesting tidbits were learned upon this visit. One of them being that up until next month all Louisville metal bats were not made in China. I asked what opportunities for growth there were in the industry and Bill, the man at the front desk, answered Australia. The final frontier?

Cave Photo

Spelunking at Mammoth

Please forgive me. I'm sorry it's taken so long to post, but I didn't
have the network.

Throughout the last 18 hours I've been busy exscavating to the far
reaches of the earth. Down 250 feet below ground in a sinkhole,
braving cool temperatures, deadly cave crickets, and slippery passage ways. Making my way down into a massive cave ducking and dodging rock formations at every angle, grasping for air in tight and closely confined areas. With little light and no sense of direction I felt lost and frightened. Scared to think what could happen if one layer of limestone came tumbling down behind me. With nothing but the clothes on my back I paved my way thru thousands of years of geological masterpieces and luckily discovered a ranger led tour that cared for me and showed me the way out.

Corvette Is a Finely Tuned Automobile

How can I call myself an American if I've never seen an assembly line
in action? And so after driving for 6 hours I got out in Bowling
Green to do the Corvette Factory tour. All of the Corvettes and the Cadilac XLR are born here. They put out over 130 Corvettes and 8 Cadilac XLR/day. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to bring a camera or cell phone on the tour otherwise I'd have a money shot of the "marriage" between the top half of the car with the drive train (transmission, engine, etc.), the most exciting part! You actually get to walk around a good portion of the assembly line while every step takes place.

Here's briefly how it works: The line is constant and runs at 1.5 mph while workers and their robot colleagues work on each car as it passes
thru their station. The whole thing comes to fruition when the tires
go on, the car is lowered down to the ground, and the engine is
started for the first time. After a ton of computer diagnostic checks,
wheel realignment, paint inspections, etc. someone gets in, revs the
engine and pulls the car into a rain room where they check for leaks.
Only then after passing a million other spot checks does it go out
onto the track for a test drive and then to the dealership.

It was cool to see an actual car assembly line, especially the Corvette.

I think it says a lot that the general look of the car has stayed the same for such a long time.

Get Me Off The Interstate

Way too many trucks this morning dampened the views of the gorgeous mountains and valleys driving up thru Tennessee towards the entrance into Kentucky. Although it's always cool to be driving above the clouds. Especially at only a few thousand feet up.

I've given yesterday's burrito experience a bit more thought and I've come to the conclusion that the ground beef was too dry and finely chopped. Not enough to sink your teeth into.

Next stop is Bowling Green, KY and the Corvette factory.

Campus Eats

When I reported about wanting to try out the local cuisine I was
obviously referring to the local mom and pop burrito shack.
Naturally, this was an easy choice given my "history".

My review of Rolling Stone Burrito follows:

Apparently this was a relatively new establishment and you could tell
the owners got the idea from Chipotle. I even saw a Chipotle sticker
at the ordering counter. I had the "Cool Buzz" - ground beef, rice,
black beans, cheese, lettuce/spinach with a creamy cool chipotle
sauce. It was pretty good, but not any better than something you
would get at Cal Tor/Chipotle/etc. Usually i never order ground beef,
but on this day i decided to take the plunge. And while i wasn't
disappointed, I'm fairly certain I'll stick to steak and chicken when I have these rice-based burritos. The way I see it ground beef works better with the old fashioned refried bean burritos and your typical enchilada.

The cheese tasted a bit like blue cheese which made for an interesting  combo with the Chipotle sauce. And one plus was that they served Cheerwine and RC Cola out of the fountain. Bravo!

One distinct negative was that the salsa served with my side of chips was not very good. Too tomato based. That is all.